1. Aim High!
There is a story about two friends who went coon hunting. It seems that Jim prided himself on getting a treed coon down with a single shot from a 22. Tony decided to play a trick and adjusted the sights so it would shoot a little low.
One night they were out hunting and pretty soon the dogs took off. They ran and ran until they gave the signal that a coon had been treed. Jim took the gun and set the sights on that old coon. When he shot, nothing happened. Jim couldn’t believe that he had missed. He shot again, and hit the branch the coon was sitting on. He shot a couple more times and missed each time. Jim simply couldn’t believe it.
About that time, as Tony told the story, that coon got real nervous and started running down the tree. All the time the dogs are barking. It ran across the ground toward Tony and ran right up his legs and perched himself on Tony’s head. Jim said, "Don’t move. I’ll get him!"
Tony saw the 22 aiming right at his head. He began to scream, "Aim higher! Aim higher!"
2. A paradox of Yeshua (Jesus) – Go low to go high!
3. John 13.1-17
I. The Servant (John 13.1-5)
A. In Yeshua (Jesus) We see the Heart of a Servant
1. His Job Description – 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 23.8-11
2. A Serving God – the Exodus
3. He could not NOT Serve
B. In Yeshua (Jesus) We see the Humility of a Servant
1. Humility is Trusting God – Psalm 131 (READ)
[Ancient Sages: “As water leaves a high level and goes back to a lower level, so the Torah abandons him whose mind is haughty and proud, but cleaves to him who is humble.”
2. Humility is the Antidote to Iniquity (avon in Hebrew)
a. “I” is the beginning of Iniquity -- but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. James 1.14
b. The Power of Iniquity –
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hid his face from you
so that he does not hear. Isaiah 59.1-2
c. Role of Humility –
While visiting Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House, Wendell Wilkie asked him, "Mr. President, why do you keep that frail, sickly man, Harry Hopkins, at your elbow?" Roosevelt replied, "Mr. Wilkie, through that door flows a stream of men and women who, almost invariably, want something from me. Harry Hopkins wants only to serve me. That’s why he is so near me!"
• For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; John 6.38
• Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. John 4.34
• “I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 5.30
d. The Power of Turning from Iniquity – 30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” Ezekiel 18.30-32
II. The Served (John 13.6-11)
A. Jewish Baptism
1. Not new with John the Baptist
2. Involved ceremonial purity to worship in temple
3. Part of Proselyte Conversion – Circumcision; Sacrifice; Baptism – “Born again”
4. New application – cleansing from sin
B. Priests and Baptism
1. Ceremonial Purity to serve – Reason the Good Samaritan story is significant; wealthy Sadducees had mikvehot in their homes and ways to get in the temple apart from the common people – no danger of impurity
2. In the temple – washed as needed in laver by the altar – not additional baptisms
C. Application
1. Our Baptism
In Guideposts magazine, Paul Harvey wrote about his baptism. “The preacher had said there was nothing magic in the water. Yet as I descended into its depths and rose again, I knew something life-changing had happened, a cleansing inside out. No longer did there seem to be two uncertain, contradictory Paul Harveys. Just one immensely happy one. I felt a fulfilling surge of the Holy Spirit and afterward I cried like a baby. The change this simple act has made in my life is so immense as to be indescribable.” As the old song says, “He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
a. Puts us into the DBR of Yeshua (Jesus) – Romans 6.1-4
b. Cleanses from sin – Acts 2.38; 22.16
c. Involves the Conscience – 1 Peter 3.21
2. We become Priests – 1 Peter 2.9
a. We make our sacrifices and service in a broken, impure world
b. Yet, we are to practice holiness – but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1.15-16 cf. Leviticus 19.2
c. What happens when we need cleansing (John 13.10)?
1) As the Priests, we have One Baptism – Ephesians 4.5
2) Wash in the blood of Yeshua (Jesus) – but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1.7
3) Irony – Priests in the temple washed to remove blood; we wash in blood to remove sinful impurities
III. The Significance (John 13.12-17)
A. Yeshua (Jesus) Is the Example in All Things (Hebrews 12.1-2)
B. We Are Not Above the Master –
1. Serve as Served – 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2.4-11
2. Empty Self –
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53.12
a. No Personal Gain
b. “None of Self and all of Thee” –
By myself I have sworn,
from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear.’ Isaiah 45.23
1. Smoke Jumpers
There is a rare brand of people known as smokejumpers who face this reality every day. These are an elite form of firefighters who battle firestorms in remote, wooded locales.
First, they jump out of an airplane with a hundred pounds of gear into the middle of a burning forest. Then they hit the ground and begin to dig. They chase the fire and fight it by hand—typically without water or retardant. They beat the fire with sand bags, digging trenches, and cutting down trees with burning branches…they are smokejumpers!
Dangerous? To say the least! It’s a killer…but it’s what they do There is an undeniable aura surrounding this tight-knit team of men and women…Deployed anywhere, at any time, covering 150 miles in an hour. Usually the first ones to arrive at isolated fires…fighting for days at times.
Can you imagine not knowing whether you’d live to see the end of today? Can you imagine being with friends and family, unsure whether or not you’d see them tomorrow? How might the life and love you share with those close to you be re-shaped if you knew your days were numbered?
2. Yeshua (Jesus) KNEW he had to face death as his ultimate service to God and man
3. He completely fulfilled the two greatest commands – loved God and his neighbor (even his enemy)
